Method for rubbing alignment layer and liquid crystal display panel

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides a method for rubbing an alignment layer on a substrate with a plurality of spacers that are arranged in rows and columns and a liquid crystal display panel. The method includes: determining a first rubbing direction and a second rubbing direction in such a manner that the second rubbing direction is an arrangement direction of liquid crystal molecules when the liquid crystal molecules are arranged correctly on the alignment layer, and an angle between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction is greater than or equal to arctan (b/a), where a represents a row pitch between the spacers and b represents a width of one spacer; performing a first rubbing on the alignment layer in the first rubbing direction; and performing a second rubbing on the alignment layer in the second rubbing direction. The second rubbing direction is different from the first rubbing direction.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 14/528,246 filed on Oct. 30, 2014, which claims a priority of the Chinese patent application No. 201410277662.3 filed on Jun. 19, 2014, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to the field of liquid crystal display technology, in particular to a method for rubbing an alignment layer, and a liquid crystal display panel.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

Liquid crystal display (LCD) is a flat, ultrathin display device and consists of a certain number of color or black/white pixels arranged in front of a light source or a reflective surface. A main principle of the LCD is to stimulate liquid crystal molecules with current so as to produce dots, lines and faces which cooperate with lamp tubes arranged at the back of the LCD to form an image. The LCD is very popular due to its features such as a thin body, low power consumption, and low radiation.

For a liquid crystal display screen, alignment layers are adhered onto upper and lower glass substrates, so as to enable the liquid crystal molecules to be arranged in a fixed direction, thereby optimizing a display effect and a viewing angle. However, after the alignment layer is heated and cured, uneven surface alignment will occur, and the liquid crystal molecules will be unorderly distributed on the alignment layer. Because an alignment effect plays a very important role in such basic properties of the LCD as evenness, viewing angle, chromatic aberration and response speed, it is required to perform alignment treatment on the alignment layer before filling the liquid crystals.

A rubbing alignment technology is the most widely-used one for manufacturing various LCDs. The so-called “rubbing alignment” refers to loading such materials as Nylon, fibers or lint onto a rubbing machine and rubbing the alignment layers on the upper and lower substrates in a direction required by the process, so as to change surface conditions of the alignment layers and anchor the liquid crystal molecules uniformly, thereby arranging the liquid crystal molecules uniformly at a certain pretilt angle within a display region between the upper and lower glass substrates of the LCD. As shown in FIG. 1, a single rubbing manner is usually adopted the prior art. Specifically, at first, a material of the alignment layer, usually polyimide (PI), is coated onto a substrate with spacers PS, so as to form a film of the alignment layer on the substrate. Then, a rubbing cloth (made of Nylon, fibers or lint) is used to rub the film in a column direction (vertical direction as shown in FIG. 1), so as to form an alignment layer with a side chain of PI molecules arranged in a certain direction, thereby ensuring the subsequently-injected liquid crystal molecules to be arranged orderly in the direction of the side chain of the PI molecules on the alignment layer. Due to presence of the spacers, a region S1 of the alignment layer is not rubbed, and this region forms a spacer shadow region.

For the LCD with a low resolution, the spacer usually is low and the resultant shadow region is small. According to an anchoring transfer principle, the liquid crystal molecules within the spacer shadow region are affected by the liquid crystal molecules within a non-shadow region, and may be normally aligned, and thus serious light leakage will not occur. Such a phenomenon where the adjacent liquid crystal molecule is normally aligned by means of the normally-aligned liquid crystal molecule through an intermolecular force is called as “anchoring transfer”, and such capability of normally aligning the adjacent liquid crystal molecules is called as “anchoring capability”.

For the LCD with a high PPI, the spacer is usually high and the resultant shadow region is large. The liquid crystal molecules at a center of the shadow region will be limitedly affected by the liquid crystal molecules within the non-shadow region, and thus the liquid crystal molecules at the center of the shadow region may not be normally aligned, and serious light leakage will occur. As a result, the image quality will be attenuated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure provides a method for rubbing an alignment layer and a liquid crystal display panel, which can reduce light leakage of the liquid crystal display panel and improve image quality.

One embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for rubbing an alignment layer on a substrate with a plurality of spacers that are arranged in rows and columns, including: determining a first rubbing direction and a second rubbing direction in such a manner that the second rubbing direction is an arrangement direction of liquid crystal molecules when the liquid crystal molecules are arranged correctly on the alignment layer, and an angle between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction is greater than or equal to arctan (b/a), where a represents a row pitch between the spacers and b represents a width of one spacer; performing a first rubbing on the alignment layer in the first rubbing direction; and performing a second rubbing on the alignment layer in the second rubbing direction. The second rubbing direction is different from the first rubbing direction.

Further, a rubbing strength of the second rubbing is higher than that of the first rubbing.

Further, an amount of indentation in the first rubbing is approximately 0.2 mm-0.4 mm; an amount of indentation in the second rubbing is approximately 0.3 mm-0.5 mm.

Further, the first rubbing and the second rubbing are performed on the alignment layer with Nylon, fibers or lint.

Further, the alignment layer is made of polyimide.

Further, the angle between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction is approximately 11°.

One embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a method for rubbing an alignment layer on a substrate with a plurality of spacers that are arranged in an array of rows and columns, including: determining a first rubbing direction and a second rubbing direction in such a manner that the second rubbing direction is a column direction of the array and an angle between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction is greater than or equal to arctan (b/a), where a represents a row pitch between the spacers and b represents a width of one spacer; performing a first rubbing on the alignment layer in the first rubbing direction; and performing a second rubbing on the alignment layer in the second rubbing direction. The second rubbing direction is different from the first rubbing direction.

According to the method for rubbing the alignment layer in the present disclosure, the alignment layer of the liquid crystal display panel is rubbed twice, and the first rubbing direction is different from the second rubbing direction. The region (the shadow region) that is not rubbed in the two rubbing is smaller than the region that is not rubbed in a single rubbing. As a result, the region where the liquid crystal molecules cannot be aligned normally may be reduced, thereby reducing the light leakage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an existing alignment rubbing process;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method for rubbing an alignment layer according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a process flow chart of a method for rubbing the alignment layer according to one embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing alignments of liquid crystal molecules in the alignment layer manufactured by the method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Implementation of the present disclosure will be described hereinafter in conjunction with the drawings and embodiments. The following embodiments are for illustrative purposes only, but shall not be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 2, one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for rubbing an alignment layer of a liquid crystal display panel. The method includes:

Step 201: performing a first rubbing on the alignment layer of the liquid crystal display panel in a first rubbing direction; and

Step S202: performing a second rubbing on the alignment layer of the liquid crystal display panel in a second rubbing direction.

The second rubbing direction is an arrangement direction of liquid crystal molecules when the liquid crystal molecules are arranged correctly on the alignment layer. The second rubbing direction is different from the first rubbing direction.

FIG. 3 is a process flow chart of a method for rubbing the alignment layer according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 3, there is an angle α defined between the first rubbing direction of the first rubbing and a column direction (i.e., the arrangement direction of the liquid crystal molecules when the liquid crystal molecules are arranged correctly), and the second rubbing direction is the column direction. After performing the first rubbing, a shadow region corresponding to a spacer PS is S1. After performing the second rubbing, a shadow region corresponding to the spacer PS is S2 (which includes a region S12 and a region S22 shown in FIG. 3). A complementary set of S2, i.e., a region that is rubbed in the second rubbing, is S0. After the two rubbings, a resultant shadow region (the region that is totally not rubbed) is an intersection S12 between S1 and S2. It can be seen that, S12 has an area significantly less than S2.

Referring to FIG. 4, after the liquid crystal molecules are injected subsequently, since a portion of the alignment layer in the region S0 is re-aligned in the second rubbing, thus, the liquid crystal molecules 1 in the region S0 are arranged in accordance with an alignment result obtained from Step S202 and thus may be aligned correctly. For the region S22, although an alignment direction in the region S22 is not the arrangement direction in which the liquid crystal molecules are required to be arranged, the liquid crystal molecules 2 in the region S22 may still be normally aligned under the effect of the liquid crystal molecules 1 in the region S0. The liquid crystal molecules 2 in the region S22 have strong anchoring capability to make the liquid crystal molecules 3 in the region S12 tend to be aligned correctly.

It should be appreciated that, in actual applications, the method of one embodiment of the present disclosure may include more than two rubbing processes, and a small shadow region will be obtained as long as a rubbing direction of a last rubbing process is the arrangement direction of the liquid crystal molecules when the liquid crystal molecules are arranged correctly and at least one rubbing direction of the rubbing processes is different from that of the last rubbing process. As a result, the liquid crystal molecules in corresponding regions may be better aligned, thereby reducing light leakage.

Further, a rubbing strength of the second rubbing is higher than that of the first rubbing.

The rubbing strength of the second rubbing being higher than that of the first rubbing may ensure the liquid crystal molecules to be arranged in the alignment direction caused by the second rubbing direction of the second rubbing. Of course, in actual applications, the rubbing strength of the second rubbing may also be equal to or less than that of the first rubbing.

Further, an amount of indentation in the first rubbing may be approximately 0.2 mm-0.4 mm; an amount of indentation in the second rubbing may be approximately 0.3 mm-0.5 mm.

Further, an angle between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction is greater than or equal to arctan (b/a), where a represents a row pitch between spacers of the liquid crystal display panel, and b represents a width of one spacer. Setting the angle between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction to be a large value (for example, greater than a predetermined value), helps to further reduce the area of the shadow region S12.

Further, the angle α between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction is equal to arctan (b/a). In actual applications, the bigger the angle α between the first rubbing direction and a correct rubbing direction, the higher the required anchoring capability of the liquid crystal molecules 1. In case that the anchoring capability of the liquid crystal molecules 1 is limited, the liquid crystal molecules 2 in the region S22 may probably be not aligned normally. In addition, when the angle α between the first rubbing direction and the correct rubbing direction is too large, the anchoring capability of the liquid crystal molecules 2 may also be reduced, and is difficult to make the liquid crystal molecules 3 tend to be aligned correctly, thereby resulting in light leakage. When the angle α between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction is equal to arctan (b/a), the occurrence of light leakage may be avoided to the greatest extent.

Further, the angle α is approximately 11°.

Further, in the method of the present disclosure, the first rubbing and the second rubbing are performed on the alignment layer with Nylon, fibers or lint.

Further, the alignment layer is made of polyimide.

The present disclosure further provides a liquid crystal display panel including the alignment layer manufactured by the above-mentioned method.

The liquid crystal display panel may be applied to any products or components having a display function, such as an electronic paper, a mobile phone, a flat-panel PC, a TV, a display, a laptop PC, a digital photo frame and a navigator.

Further, the spacer of the liquid crystal display panel has a height greater than or equal to 3.4 μm.

Further, the spacer of the liquid crystal display panel has a height less than 3.9 μm.

The foregoings are merely exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be appreciated that, a person skilled in the art may make further modifications and improvements without departing from the principle of the present disclosure, and these modifications and improvements also fall within the scope of the present invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for rubbing an alignment layer on a substrate with a plurality of spacers that are arranged in rows and columns, comprising: determining a first rubbing direction and a second rubbing direction in such a manner that the second rubbing direction is an arrangement direction of liquid crystal molecules when the liquid crystal molecules are arranged correctly on the alignment layer, and an angle between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction is greater than or equal to arctan (b/a), where a represents a row pitch between the spacers and b represents a width of one spacer; performing a first rubbing on the alignment layer in the first rubbing direction; and performing a second rubbing on the alignment layer in the second rubbing direction; wherein the second rubbing direction is different from the first rubbing direction.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a rubbing strength of the second rubbing is higher than that of the first rubbing.
 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein an amount of indentation in the first rubbing is approximately 0.2 mm-0.4 mm; an amount of indentation in the second rubbing is approximately 0.3 mm-0.5 mm.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first rubbing and the second rubbing are performed on the alignment layer with Nylon, fibers or lint.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the alignment layer is made of polyimide.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the angle between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction is approximately 11°.
 7. A method for rubbing an alignment layer on a substrate with a plurality of spacers that are arranged in an array of rows and columns, comprising: determining a first rubbing direction and a second rubbing direction in such a manner that the second rubbing direction is a column direction of the array and an angle between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction is greater than or equal to arctan (b/a), where a represents a row pitch between the spacers and b represents a width of one spacer; performing a first rubbing on the alignment layer in the first rubbing direction; and performing a second rubbing on the alignment layer in the second rubbing direction; wherein the second rubbing direction is different from the first rubbing direction.
 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein a rubbing strength of the second rubbing is higher than that of the first rubbing.
 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein an amount of indentation in the first rubbing is approximately 0.2 mm-0.4 mm; an amount of indentation in the second rubbing is approximately 0.3 mm-0.5 mm.
 10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the first rubbing and the second rubbing are performed on the alignment layer with Nylon, fibers or lint.
 11. The method according to claim 7, wherein the alignment layer is made of polyimide.
 12. The method according to claim 7, wherein the angle between the first rubbing direction and the second rubbing direction is approximately 11°. 